Exercise has long been known to be beneficial for people of all ages. In the past, many people were able to exercise simply by carrying out routine daily tasks that previously were labor intensive. The modern age, however, has succeeded in eliminating many “inconveniences” of life that involved physical exertion, and consequently there has been an increasing need for people to find other ways to exercise in order to achieve better health.
Today, a wide variety of exercise equipment is available for helping people achieve better health. Some devices and equipment help people achieve a cardiovascular workout, while other devices and equipment allow people to focus on muscle toning, strengthening, and development. Devices and equipment designed for muscle strength and development typically involve a muscle or muscle group applying a force in opposition to a resisting mechanical force generated by the exercise device. Thus, current devices and equipment can be highly specialized for the development of a particular muscle or muscle group.
While the ability to focus on a particular muscle or muscle group is beneficial, this specialization often neglects to allow for development of complementary muscle groups. Complimentary muscle groups include muscles that allow a person to move a part of their body and then return it to an original position. One example of complimentary muscle groups are biceps and triceps, which allow a person to bend their arm and then extend it again. Typically, exercise equipment that specializes in developing bicep muscles are not targeted for developing triceps without either modification of the equipment, repositioning of the exerciser, or both. Free weights useful for developing biceps, for example, may be too heavy for tricep development and would require an exerciser to choose which muscle group to develop during any set of exercises. As a result of this specialization, often people need to use multiple devices or complex exercise systems in order to strengthen or develop these complementary muscle groups.
Some exercise equipment requires a relatively uniform amount of exertion throughout the entire range of motion. Free weights, for example, provide the same weight resistance regardless of how far they have been lifted. Other exercise machines provide for variable resistance over the range of motion in which they are used. For example, some exercise machines simulating bench presses of weights may use camming mechanisms to vary the mechanical advantage given by the machine to the exerciser as the bar or grip is moved by the exerciser's arm extension. Thus, as an exerciser exerts a force to move the bar or grip, the machine can be designed to become progressively more difficult or more easy to move. Likewise, the use of a spring in an exercise device can result in requiring progressively increasing forces in order to further compress the device.
While such devices have been effective in some ways, they also suffer from disadvantages. Such machines tend to be large, being of high weight and requiring a large amount of space. These machines may also be difficult to use, requiring not only weight adjustment, but also adjusting the position of the user.
Another problem with such devices, or the use of conventional weights, is one of safety and convenience. If an exerciser lifts free weights connected to a bar, for example, relaxation of the muscles exercised during lifting may cause the weights to fall and injure the exerciser. Thus, it is difficult for a person exercising by such methods to safely stop in the middle of an exercise stroke, as the weights must be returned to a resting position.